MP SPEAKS | Umno and PAS leaders should stop their delusion in justifying the cooperation between the two parties and MCA, when the real intent of this unholy alliance is purely for their selfish interests.

A PAS leader has said that the party’s increased vote share in the Seri Setia by-election yesterday showed that further cooperation between BN and PAS was worth exploring. He said Harapan’s popular vote had deteriorated, whereas PAS had made significant inroads.

On the other hand, an Umno leader said that the doubling of votes for the PAS candidate Dr Halimah Ali, who polled 9,698 votes, from the 4,563 Mohd Gahazali Daud managed in the 14th general election, was proof that Malays approve of the cooperation between both parties.

These are dishonest delusions by the PAS and Umno leaders, as they are using different yardsticks for the comparison of the two polls.

What must be compared are the votes secured by the PAS candidate in the by-election, with the total votes polled by both Umno and PAS in GE14.

This is because both parties cooperated as one platform in yesterday’s by-election as compared to GE14, when they each fielded separate candidates.

Thus, the Umno leader was not being honest in claiming that Halimah had doubled the votes polled in GE14.

The number of votes she received should be compared against the combined number of votes secured by the BN candidate (9,878) and PAS candidate (4,563) in GE14. This adds up to 14,441 votes.

So Halimah only got 9,698 out of 14,441 votes – or only two-thirds of what PAS and Umno polled in the GE14.

In fact, Halimah’s votes were even less than that secured by the BN’s Yusoff Haniff in GE14, raising the question why Umno gave way to PAS to contest in the Seri Setia by-election.

When the PAS leader claimed that Pakatan Harapan votes had deteriorated, he had simply ignored the fact that the voter turnout deteriorated from 84 percent to 44 percent.

The reason why Umno-BN was rejected by the Malaysian electorate in GE14 was that their leaders caused Malaysia to become a global kleptocracy.

In the four months after the polls, Umno-BN leaders (including MCA leaders) have not made any apology for the 1MDB kleptocracy, showing that they are not capable of reform to become honest and constructive opposition parties.

Under such circumstances, why are the PAS leaders advocating an unholy alliance with the Umno leaders?

Or are the PAS leaders under president Abdul Hadi Awang advocating Islamic kleptocracy?

LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.

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